“That’s everyone’s dream here; the club has been working towards that for some years now and has got closer to it recently,” Messi told France Football, referencing Paris’s final and semi-final appearances in the past two seasons. “From a personal point of view, it’s the same. I would really like to win the Champions League again, as I said when I was still in Barcelona. It’s a great competition, very difficult to win, but I think this group of players has the qualities to win it.”

At his official presentation in mid-August, he told PSG TV: “I hope to be able to help and contribute everything I can to achieve this objective. It would be exceptional for the club, for me, for the fans. I hope we’ll do it step by step – start calmly but keeping in mind it’s the objective for everyone.”

Start calmly? There’s a thought. The one thing that Paris was not in the days leading up to Messi’s arrival was calm. August is generally the most peaceful month of the year here, with most Parisians escaping the effervescence of the city at one of France’s many coastal resorts. In fact, if you ever want a parking space in the city, this would be your moment.

But when genius comes to town, all bets are off. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Secrets travel fast in Paris.” True – though the French emperor had no inkling of how social media could ramp up the pace. Facts were heavily outweighed by fantasy and frenzy as fans camped out – literally camped out – at Paris’s Le Bourget airport with Messi inbound.

In fact there were people in five different venues waiting to see him. And knowing he was going to be presented at the Parc des Princes at 11am, they got there early. The club were showing their pre-press conference show on the big screen and then the atmosphere really picked up about an hour before Messi arrived; there was a lot of noise. There were no such scenes when David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Neymar joined.

There was the feeling this was big not only for Paris but for French football. In L’Équipe’s case it was 1.7m big, as France’s main sports paper produced a lifesize figure of the Argentina international, with the enticement to ‘Get yourself photographed with Messi.’ It’s quite possible that a number of Ligue 1 opponents did just that, as it may prove to be the closest they get to him all season. “It’s very good for Ligue 1, which moves up several levels thanks to him,” said Messi’s former Barça team-mate – and now Ligue 1 opponent – Cesc Fàbregas of Monaco.

Paris’s image was given a further polish with Messi’s arrival, while the state-of-the-art training centre set to open for 2022/23 will further enhance its standing among the continental elite – as well as at home, where the club competes with the myriad distractions of its city. What would put Parisians’ focus squarely on football would be a Champions League final win, even if the arrival of footballing royalty is already proving an attraction. “Paris isn’t just football: there’s the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower,” explains Froment. “There are lots of things to do, but while you didn’t see so many PSG shirts before, you’re starting to see more now. Lots of foreigners come to Paris and now they also visit the Parc. Before it was to see Neymar, now it’s for Messi.”

An underwhelming Matchday 1 draw in Bruges, when the potentially potent MNM attacking trident of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé was employed for the first time, failed to answer questions about whether the sum of their talents will add up to its promise. However, coach Mauricio Pochettino is unperturbed.

“It’s definitely a huge challenge – that’s the biggest challenge, right?” says the former Tottenham manager, himself a former Paris player. “But what we always say, even if it sounds a cliché, is that one needs to act naturally with the players – beyond their names, the importance they may have in the media. That is why I see it as a very beautiful challenge, to put all that talent at the service of the team so that we can become a strong team, a frightening team as everyone thinks.”

And it’s not all about MNM, with Pochettino piecing together a Parisian puzzle that now includes Achraf Hakimi, Georginio Wijnaldum, Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma. They were all drafted in alongside Messi during a bountiful summer, with a view to taking the club to the prize that they have come within touching distance of over the past two campaigns.

The Matchday 2 defeat of Manchester City, featuring a sublime first Paris goal for Messi teed up by an Mbappé flick, suggested those pieces are starting to fall into place. It was described as “amazing” by Pochettino and “fantastic” by City boss Pep Guardiola, Messi’s former Barça mentor. They are both adjectives that will no doubt be used frequently over the course of this campaign to describe the exploits of the club’s new No30.

“An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris,” reckoned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The French capital, an inspiration to so many standout performers across the cultural spectrum, now has another maestro in its midst.